1. *Marriage Records–up to 16 different official, public records could be kept.
2. *Census Records–1790 through 1930 (1890 includes only surviving Civil War Veterans for states  L-Z alphabetically).  The early schedules were often vulnerable to loss by weather and war.  When lost, oaths of allegiance, militia rolls and pensions, inhabitant lists, and tax rolls can supply important details.
3. *Probate Files–wills, inventories, petitions, guardianship papers, estate settlements, legal notices in the newspaper at any stage of the probate process.
4. Cemetery Inscriptions–including Sexton’s Registers.  Many cemeteries have already been read, indexed, and published in print or online.  Watch especially for ethnic burial grounds.
5. *Land and Tax Records–search the tax rolls first, then the deeds, then the grants/patents and surveys. When lost, land and military bounty claims can provide mini-census lists of persons who knew the claimant, migration patterns and dates, multiple generations of ancestry.   Local newspapers publish legal notices
6. County and Local Histories–search later in your work so that you can spot related persons whose information may help extend your pedigree.  These sources often reprint and thus preserve records that can be lost when the courthouse burns.  They also save oral traditions and personal knowledge of the local history and doings.
7. Vital Records–27 states are online.  Up t0 7 different categories of birth records could be kept. It is recommended that death certificates be searched for all children and siblings of your ancestors.  Cemeteries where children and siblings were buried may lead to burial places for the parents too.
8. Newspapers–many are already indexed with images online.  Local newspapers publish notices of estate settlements, often with lists of heirs and their claims.  Powers of attorney and guardian appointments, sales of property, debts to be collected, contested estates, escheats–when the property reverts to the government because heirs cannot be collected.

*These records are missing in many counties of Tennessee because of courthouse fires and other record loss.  By-pass these vulnerable records by using substitute evidence from other sources–records not created or preserved at the county level. Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle    http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Stay tuned for descriptions of other Tennessee sources and research tips on how to use them to advantage to trace and document a difficult-to-find ancestor.

I have put a lot of information  on my website recently–tied to finding ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War.  The above blogs will give you entree to some of the most important.  Check them out–then attend my presentation on Why the Revolutionary War is Important for your Genealogy at the St George Family History Expo 22-23 Feb 2013 at the Dixie Center on 1835 Convention Drive, St George UT.  I’m not the only presenter by any means.  And this presentation is clearly worth the cost of admittance.  For FREE, you can come by my booth in the Exhibit Hall and chat about your hardest to find ancestor–I’ll be happy to talk with you.  Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  The post on my Tennessee Blog, 5 Jan 2013, leads you to a new online database for Kings Mountain Veterans.  I invite you to check it out if you missed it.

New Website for Tennessee Research–Revolutionary War Times

Here is a new website for Tennessee, including the Battle of Kings Mountain and the area called South of the French Broad River:  http://www.sn1754.com 

This website includes new rosters for the Battle of Kings Mountain, with newly transcribed pension files based on the original documents available through Ancestry.com and Fold3.com.

New bibliographies, recommended by scholars of the Battle and its participants.  New descriptions of the Battle.  And comparative lists of participants with analysis and pension numbers so you can see for yourself who actually fought and the evidence on which their claims were  based.

This what you need–new, clear evidence on which to base your family tree.  Carefully studied by dedicated researchers.  Check it out and break your losing streak.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle

PS  I Goggled the website and got a list of all the links so I could check them out one by one.  I also set up an RSS feed for all updates.

PSS  Stay tuned.  You will not want to miss even one of my exciting posts in 2013–with new checklists, and new source lists, and new example documents that you have not yet searched for your own ancestors.  Lots of research going on for Tennessee ancestors–with startling and new genealogy results.

PPSS  Stay tuned.  The above website comes from a blog reader who shared his information when I posed a question–”I’m one of those…” he said.  And we are all richer for his sharings.  Many thanks Fred.

From: “The Book Foundry” <steve@thebookfoundry.com>  Subject: The First Southwest: Volume 3 of the Cumberland Settlements Series

1. Watauga Association Articles of Agreement, 1772–101 signers.  1776–110 signers.  See Appalachian Quarterly (Sep 1996): 39-40.
2. Tryon County (NC) Declaration of Rights and Independence from British Tyranny, 1775–49 names on official monument.  See Robert L. Williams.  Gaston County NC:  A Pictorial History.  Norfolk VA:  Donning Company, 1981.
3. Cumberland Compact Articles of Agreement, 1 May 1780–256 signers.  See A.W. Putnam. History of Middle Tennessee.   Nashville TN:  for the author, 1859 and Archibald Henderson, “Richard Henderson:  Authorship of the Cumberland Compact and the Founding of Nashville,” Tennessee Historical Magazine 2 (Sep 1916).  You might also review Doug Drake, etal.  Founding of the Cumberland Settlements:  The First Atlas, 1779-1804–Showing Who Came, How They Came, and Where They Put Their Roots.  Gallatin TN:  Warioto Press, 2009.  Includes a useful timeline for the Chickamuga War, 1777-1795.  Two supplements reproduce the North Carolina land warrants, surveys, and surveyor plats.  Well indexed.
4. Battle of King’s Mountain:  Participants by State of Residence, 7 Oct 1780.  See J. Allen Neal and John Allen Neal, III.  Bicentennial History of Washington County Virginia, 1776-1976.  Dallas TX:  Taylor Publishing, 1977.  Men from Ga, KY, NC, PA (one man), SC, TN, and VA fought.  There is some evidence that names assigned to TN and VA were actually from SC.
5. State of Franklin, 1784.  486 signers/voters.  Original Franklinites, 38; Antis, 9.  See Samuel Cole Williams.  History of the Lost State of Franklin.  New York:  Press of the Pioneer, 1933.  Reprinted, Baltimore MD:  Clearfield Company, 1996.
6. Clarksville Compact Resolves, 27 Jan 1785.  12 signers on Red River.  See Samuel Cole Williams, “Clarksville Compact,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 3 (Sep 1944): 236-45.
7. Washington County NC, Petition of Inhabitants, Dec 1787. 463 signers.  See JGM Ramsey. The Annals of Tennessee.  Charleston:  John Russell, 1853.  Reprinted, New York:  Arno Press, 1971.
8. Company Lists for Troops Stationed at Fort Southwest Point, 1799-1811.  See Roane Ramblings 11 (Winter 1995): 99-119 and subsequent issues.  Publication of muster rolls and pay lists from the US National Archives.

Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Welcome to our newly updated blog.  Stay tuned for resources to by-pass the county record loss in Tennessee.  You will be amazed at the large number of lists for early Tennessee–including petitions to form new county and local government.

Leland L. Smith.  Gone to Texas.  Texas and Tennessee Smiths.  1999.  Historical Publications,  15705 Hilcroft, Austin TX 78717.  ISBN 1-881825-21-3.

1. Volume I:  Early to Tennessee, Later to Texas. The Smith Family (of Hawkins TN); Early to Texas by Southern Passage, The Lewis Family (of Nash County NC/Pickens County AL And family chapters–Powell, Jones, Strickland, Chamblee, and Burris families.
2. Volume II:  Early to Texas by Northern Passage. Hill Family, Green family, King family, Graves family, Fincher family, and Taylor family.
3. Volume III:  Early to Tennessee.  From NC:  Spears family, Haynes family, Turner family, Hobgood family.  From Virginia:  Grigsby family, Breeding family, and Ridley family.

Migrations of these groups of families are mapped and charted with their overlapping interrelationships, from 1625-ca.1800.  Every name is indexed by given and surnames so you can tract the relationships and the genealogy easily.  Buyers and readers alike voted these volumes 5-stars.

Roy Edwin Thomas, Southern Appalachia, 1885-1915:  Oral Histories from the Residents of the State Corner Area of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.  Jefferson NC:  McFarland & Company, Inc. 1991.  Using 43 interviews with residents from all three states, Thomas describes migrations into and through this tri-corner area.  From names on the 1784 Tennessee petition to North Carolina for statehood, the New Dictionary of American Family Names by Elsdon C. Smith, and the 1787 Census of NC, he concluded that from 60 to 70 percent of the early settlers were English, just under 10% were Welsh, about 20% were Scots, Irish, and Scots-Irish, with trickles from other national groups. These percentages applied only to Southern Appalachia.

What these books have in common (except for being still available through Amazon .com) is their use of source material to demonstrate and prove their conclusions.  With sources cited, you can trace the evidence and decide for yourself if the migrations, the relationships, and origins are true.

Great Record Loss in Tennessee

Record loss in Tennessee, of all the Southern States, is greatest.  And you are left with the need to use all sources, from every jurisdiction–government, church, private, personal.  And if I were to draft a checklist of the records and sources used in these two works, you would have a model list to follow.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://arleneeakle.com

PS  There is a tendency for genealogy critics to question older written works because they don’t have the advantage of all the new indexes and internet databases currently available.  And that the biases of the past skew the evidence.  Be very careful taking such critiques as research guides.  A review of older genealogies with the sources upon which they were based, is very healthy for the truth–you learn where the facts came from originally.  And how they were manipulated to fit into family proof.  Very healthy to review the facts and their sources.

PPS  Consider, work from the 1990′s, now out-of-print, is “older” work worthy of review.

Tennessee Births and Christenings, 1828-1939  .  197,220  .  7 May 2010

Tennessee Confederate Pension Applications, Soldiers and Widows, 1891-1965  .  Browse Images  .  22 Mar 2012  .

Tennessee County Marriages, 1790-1950  .  1,006,415  .  26 Mar 2012

Tennessee Deaths and Burials, 1874-1955  .  227,540  .  13 Dec 2010

Tennessee Probate Court Books, 1795-1927  .  Browse Images  .  7 Jul 2011

Tennessee Probate Court Files, 1795-1927  .  Browse Images  .  19 Jun 2011

Tennessee, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865  .  1,117,605  .   *21 Apr 2012

Tennessee, Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865  .  578,993  .   *21 Apr 2012

Tennessee, Death Records, 1914-1955  .  1,276,585  .  30 Mar 2011

Tennessee, Marriages, 1796-1950  .  1,674,368  .  22 Mar 2012

Tennessee, State Marriage Index, 1780-2002  .  3,331,399  .  11 Jan 2012

Just add together the numbers of marriages for Tennessee, where genealogy has experienced the most destroyed records–greater than any other state: 

             5,011,183 Tennessee marriages! 

At your fingertips. 

On your Laptop. 

On your computer. 

On your portable device.

These marriages are taken from both original and printed marriages.  They are fully indexed and available to you with a click of your mouse or a flick of your finger.   Added to FamilySearch between January and March 2012.

Is your ancestor’s marriage among them?

If not, check back with this massive indexing program after the 1940 census is fully indexed–for the Probate Court Books to be indexed.  In these probate images, you will find “implied marriages.”  Where testators name spouses or identify their parents who are to be cared for during their natural lives.  And you will add another 500,000 “implied marriages” or more.

You can discover innumerable marriage and other vital records for many countries of the world at FamilySearch.  On the search screen, scroll down the left-hand side of the page to Browse Collections. Then choose your country of interest.  And monitor the upload of marriage records as they are updated.

The FamilySearch  search engines are among the most powerful and awesome of any genealogy website–enough to challenge Google itself.  With filters to ensure you find the right ancestor quickly.  Try it out–just click the link http://familysearch.org  and get to the work of discovery.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle.  http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Once my email ability to send is corrected next week, I will be able to tackle the thousands of emails waiting in my inbox and in my outbox.  UGH!

Not just piecemeal access in printed books, in items transcribed on Rootsweb and US GenWeb and other internet sites…

Not just pedigrees supposed, concluded from circumstantial entries picked here and there, ancestries wished for…

A massive, fully searchable database (or even a series of linked databases) across all jurisdictional levels would allow us to spot migrations within counties, withing districts, within families, and those that meander over years across the state.

Consider the case of Robert Stephenson, who very early appears in Green County KY from where?  Then moves to Knox County TN where he appears to live out his life.  There are gaps in the timeline however, which could lead to other records and family ties.

Or consider the case of John Bray, who appears in eastern TN (probably Knox County) before 1800.  He has two sons born in Kentucky (per the 1850 census) by 1815 and ends up in Anderson County TN–like a ping-pong ball from state to state.  Also with gaps in the timeline which could lead to other records and family ties.

Ancestors move into and out of Tennessee.  Leaving almost no track except family traditions and statements in later sources like the census or an obituary filed in some mid-western state like Missouri or Iowa.

Extreme record loss is an essential part of this challenge.  Over 90 counties have suffered losses.  A consolidated database drawing from all jurisdictional levels could help to ease genealogy stress in Tennessee.

FamilySearch and Ancestry and Fold Three (formerly Footnote) are just a few sites with Tennessee records from several levels–these provide tantalizing tidbits to show what could be accomplished.

Stay tuned to my next post on this blog.  I am going to begin an interim bibliography of works that will help you to document Tennessee ancestors on the move.  It can serve as a checklist–you can consult this list to see if you have already considered these items in your research.

And for ancestors with less common surnames, like Bray and Childress and Shumate, you will begin to build your own database of where people were when and who they were associated with at the place and time.  These entries can be compared and matched with places of origin–Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.  And places of later settlement like Alabama, Texas, Illinois, Arkansas, and Missouri.

And if I do research for you as a client, you will be able to see from my report to you, that I have used this checklist to ensure that no obvious ancestor has been overlooked.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Using borrowed and refurbished computers, I plan to port information on my blogs ever 2-3 days.  Please stay tuned to benefit from the research I have been doing these past few months while my computer has been down.

[Don't tell a soul, but my computer skills have improved immensely as I have changed cords from one processor to another, typed data on one computer and transferred it to another, and tried to save files that appeared corrupted.  Very pleased with myself.  Losing files that are not available in some other place is brutal.]

Today, at the Family History Expo, Arlene was speaking on documenting your common ancestors in Congressional Records. She talked about Peter Force’s “American Archives”, a Documentary History of the early days of the United States. The set is comprised of 6 volumes in the Fourth Series, and 3 volumes in the Fifth Series for a total of 9 volumes. She has access to one of the volumes in physical format and said that because of the computer problem, she hadn’t yet Googled to see if they had been digitized. So I did that while she was talking and found that all 9 volumes are available at http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=%22Peter%20Force%22 for free, and can be read online or downloaded in a variety of formats (PDF, text, Kindle, etc).

With the computer problem, she won’t be blogging either. I’ll keep you posted if it looks like it will take longer than the end of the month.

Kathryn Bassett, webmaster for our favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle